Attack of the Plot Bunnies
by Cairis Rin
Summary: Plot Bunnies invade the Agency, and there's only one thing they want!


Rating: PG  
Genre: Humour  
Spoilers: None  
Disclaimers: I don't own them, and I apologize in advace for any coincidence of names in this story.  
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at humour, and really, it's just plain sillyness! 

Bobby Hobbes was sitting peaceably at his desk humming a merry toneless tune under his breath as he filled out the day's amount of paper work. Actually, it was the week's amount, but the week had been pretty busy and he, like any red blooded American, let the paper work slide. Right, like Bobby Hobbes is going to stay up all night filing a report! I'm not Eberts! He thought sarcastically to himself.

He had just reached the last page of the file when an odd noise caused his pen to hover just above the paper in retrospect. 

Thump!

Eyebrows curling together he leaned over in his chair listening, his mind vainly trying to place the sound as he stretched closer to the door.

Thump thump!

What the hell was that? He wondered, even more troubled. It was coming from the hall, most definitely, but nothing he knew made that sort of sound. He would swear it was getting closer, what ever the hell it was, but the odd noise was slightly muffled. Bobby leaned out even further straining his ears and attention as far as they would go.

THUD!

Within a second Bobby was picking himself back up from off the floor and giving the fallen chair a few choice words. 

Thumpthump. 

He froze, it was most definitely louder this time, and it was getting closer together now, too. Cautiously pulling out his gun Hobbes moved to the door, hiding briefly behind the frame listening to the noise for another second before he carefully poked his head out into the hall.

Thumpthump thumpthump!

There was nothing in sight, but the noise was still there, like an ominous voice slowly getting closer and closer. Hobbes had seen those movies, the ones with the looming sounds proclaiming the arrival of the guy in a trench coat and a hook for a hand who of coarse only appears a second before he kills you. Bobby Hobbes had seen worse, my friend, he wasn't scared of no hooks.

Thumpthumpthump...

The noise was running together now with a growing intensity so that Bobby had to struggle to define the separate noises. He couldn't help the little queasy feeling that had started to grow in his stomach and stepping out into the hall pointed his gun in the direction the noise was approaching, preparing for the worst.

What he got was nothing close to what he would ever expect, and he eyes went wide as the first sign of what was making the noise turned the corner towards him. For a brief second he found himself completely frozen in shock and horror. "Oh crap!" He breathed out, then turning tail ran the other way as fast as he could.

Thump thump thump thump...

It followed him, taunting, as it slowly gained in speed. Hobbes ran even faster, turned the corner and WHAM! Ran smack dab into an equally disheveled Darien.

Yet his partner was looking just as frantic as Bobby felt, and glancing over the tall man's shoulder down the hall his partner had just run from Bobby felt his blood run cold.

Thumpthump thumpthump

"Come on man! We gotta go!" Darien frantically cried as they hastily got to their feet and sprinted down the only hall available, the only hall that was still safe. 

Hobbes followed at a run only white fear can produce. "What the hell is going on!"

Darien skidded to a halt in front of the elevator, pressing the button repetitiously in his panic. "Come on, come on, come on!" His mantra rising in crescendo as fast as the noise echoed to them. 

With dread the two partners stared down the hall with wild eyes and when the elevator door opened they hastened inside, each of them immediately going for the close door button.

Yet the door didn't close right away and they each held their breaths in fearful anticipation, their heartbeats reverberating in their ears. When nothing appeared and the door finally closed, they let out a mutual sigh of relief, Darien slouching back against the elevator railing like he'd just run a tri-marathon. 

Pacing the small elevator Hobbes had to release some of his nervous tension. "The close button never works, do you know that? Why does it never work? No matter what elevator, it still doesn't work. What's the purpose of a close button if it never closes?!"

He reached for his bottle of pills only to discover it absent form its usual pocket. Damn it! That's right, he'd left them in his desk drawer! Crap!

"Hobbes, Hobbes," Darien said with widening eyes getting his partner's attention and quickly asked, a slight quiver to his voice "What if they're out there?"

DING

They jumped for the close button again before the door could slide open, but it was useless, the frickin close button only works 'after' the fact! Yet when the door slid open, mere silence greeted them. Looking at each other they cautiously exited, edgily making their way down the hall.

Thump.

Darien froze. He turned slowly to the door closest him. It was the entrance to the stairwell.

THUMP!

Jumping back away from the impacted door and quicksilvering in freight Darien immediately realized what happened. "Hobbes!" He called out, voice rising in panic, "They're coming down the stairs!"

"Run Darien! Run!" Hobbes immediately called, searching the hall for his invisible partner, Bobby Hobbes doesn't bail on his partner.

THUMP! THUMP!

The door to the stairwell was getting hit on pretty hard, it wasn't going to hold much longer. Bobby felt the rush of cold on his shoulder and a second later was greeted by his partner as they sprinted their way through the basement halls. A loud crash announced the fall of the stairwell doorway. Then Bobby had a sudden frantic thought. "Claire! Head for the Keep! We gotta get to the Keep!" He told Darien as they ran.

Thump thump thump thump

The empty halls echoed the sounds making it hard to tell how far behind they were, but within seconds they could see the Keep door. Darien, pulling out his card slid it through the slot with shaking hands, forced to take a minute to get it in the right spot.

The second the door opened they ran inside.

Claire spun around in her chair in confusion as the two men burst through the door, then started making motions at it as if it would close any sooner that way. "Claire! Claire! The lock! Get the lock!" Hobbes yelled out as the metal door closed shut and both men just stared at it in frightful anticipation.

"What?" Claire asked, alarmed at their white faces, but still too confused to react.

THUMP! 

The door literally vibrated with the impact. Darien picked up a new mantra. "Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man..."

Grabbing the remote from her desk, Claire pushed the button and was greeted by the red light that indicated the door was sealed shut and wouldn't open again without the proper code. "What's going on-" She began to question but was interrupted by the war that suddenly, and with immense viciousness, commenced against her door.

THUMP!THUMP!THUMP!THUMP!

After a short time when it was apparent the door would hold against the assault, the noise eased till there was just an occasional thump, almost as if to remind them that they were still there.

"What the bloody hell is that?!!" Claire all out demanded.

Hobbes and Darien turned to her, their faces masks of fear as they replied in one breathless accord, "Plot Bunnies!"

Claire blinked, then blinked again. "What?" They were kidding, right?

"Plot bunnies. There were hundreds of them!" Bobby told her with his most innocent and honest expression.

"Right," she grumbled and made to open the door to see for herself but Darien stopped her.

"Claire, no! You can't let them in! They'll eat us alive! Or worse, torture us, take our memories and leave us as empty as zombie vegetables!" 

Claire just gave him a look. "Please Darien. Plot bunnies? Come on, get serious!"

"We are serious!" Hobbes told her. "You don't know what it's like! I've read about what these creature do, it's not a pretty picture!" He told her fervently. 

Hobbes, reading? That right there made her not believe them, but there was no denying the pleading looks on their faces and the blatant fear in their eyes. She could deal with one of them with that expression, but two? Claire sighed. "Alright, let's say I believe you, that there are plot bunnies-"

"Hundreds of em," Darien reminded her.

"Hundreds of plot bunnies running rampage through the building. Where did they come from?" She asked.

"They just appeared in the hallway for me, almost had me barricaded in a corner, too," Darien said shuddering with horror as he leaned back against the edge of the dentist chair, his hands searching for something solid to hold on to. 

"Ditto." Hobbes stated curtly, he too was starting to get some control back now that they were safe, well, sort of. "I don't know where they frickin came from but if they didn't get the Official by now I'm not frickin waiting around for him to frickin call!"

BRING!

Claire grabbed the receiver from its cradle and stated professionally, "This is the Keeper." Darien and Hobbes watched as her face went from stern to troubled to exasperated. "Oh please! Would you two just come out of the closet already?!"

Darien and Bobby exchanged startled looks, then Darien ventured hesitantly, "Is that the Official and Eberts?"

Claire covered the mouth piece and irritably told them, "Yes, yes. They locked themselves in the closet to escape your...plot bunnies," she said with distaste like she still didn't believe.

"There's a phone in the closet?" Bobby asked.

"Ebes has a cell you know," Darien replied amiably.

"What?!" Bobby exclaimed. "What does he need a cell for?! I bet the Fat Man's paying for it, too! He wouldn't-"

Claire waved them quiet making shushing noises and then listened intently to the phone. His lips were thinning with every second. After what seemed like forever, she finally said, "Yes sir. I understand." And then hung up.

Darien and Bobby were on the edge of anticipation. "So? What'd they say?" They asked as one.

Claire crossed her arms looking none too pleased replied, "Well, according to Eberts, these plot bunnies," she drew out, "are from a recent overgrowth and consequently were kicked out by a group of fanfic writers, who ever they are."

"Oh," Bobby frowned. "So what to they want?"

"The fanfic writers?"

"No, the plot bunnies."  


"You guys...apparently."

"Us?" Bobby and Darien breathed out in stereo and then grabbed for the chair as their knees went weak. 

Claire shook her head in dismay and moving over helped them to sit. As absurd as she felt it was, she did have to smile at the look of pathetic hopelessness on both their faces. "Eberts did say there might be a way to kill the bunnies, or at least subdue them," she told them and smiled wider as the hope blossomed on their faces. She shook her head casually saying, "I for one think it'd be easier to just gas the buggers, but Albert seems to think 'plot bunnies' are immune to any kind of physical harm we could employ."

"Come on Claire," Darien whined, and Bobby added, "So what do we do?"

"They suggested writing a story and reading it to them."

"What?" The replied, but suddenly got a really excited look on their faces that for some reason terrified Claire more than ominous noise outside. "We could do this, writing's not so bad," Darien said looking to Hobbes, he nodded in agreement. "Sure buddy. Writing ain't so bad."

Groaning, Claire demanded, "Don't tell me you guys are serious here. I mean come on! Plot bunnies? Fanfic writers? You can't seriously believe they exist, can you?"

"Oh they exist, my friend. Trust me, they exist!" Bobby told her, and with growing excitement headed for her computer. "This is going to be great! I can finally write it the way it should be. Top agent, not that I'm not already, full head of hair, valet parking...Golda, you're getting a cousin! I'm going to write this, Bobby Hobbes style! I'll be the star of this story," he determined.

"Hey hey hey. What do you mean you?" Darien quickly argued following close behind. "I never get to do anything! I just get beat up all the time!" He complained.

Claire sat down and got comfortable on the recently vacated chair closing her eyes in resignation. This was going be one long day. For some time she listened as they argued back and forth over the 'star' of their story, finally coming to a sort of balance. Suave, benevolent, gracious to all animals, rich, like Bruce Wayne type rich, had his own government department, a butler, they all have a butler, a pack full of gadgets and odd items, was an expert hacker, a top scientist, six star agent...

"There's such thing as a six star agent?"

"It's our story, isn't it? He's a six star agent, okay Fawkes? Just leave it alone!"

"Oh, and he's gotta have cool hair, lots of it. Long and flowing, works well with mouse."

"So not like yours hair boy? Alright, long hair, back in a ponytail."

"What?! You don't put hair in a ponytail! No it needs to be free Hobbes! Hair needs to be free man!"

"Fine, fine, free flowing long main of hair, happy?"

"Yes."

"You're welcome."

They continued on for a while, creating a handful of other characters for their story, including a sidekick.

"Hey, the guy needs a sidekick."

"What are you trying to say here?"

"What? Nothing! He just needs a sidekick, okay?" 

After so long of listening to them banter and finally working out the few random characters it took Claire a minute to realize the room had grown suddenly quiet. Even the bunnies out side had grown quite for the short spell as if they knew exactly what was going one behind the metal barrier. Cautiously Claire opened her eyes to find both Bobby and Darien sitting with their legs stretched out, arms crossed and the most distant looks on their faces as they stared straight ahead at nothing. "Ah...guys?" She asked a little worried.

The jumped startled and looking abashed, Darien admitted. "We need a plot."

A loud racket exploded outside the keep, like that of one of the neighbor's parties at two am on a Saturday morning.

Claire sighed, this was going to be a long day indeed. She got up and joining them pushed Bobby out of 'her' chair to find another and promptly took over the computer. "Okay, let's see what you've got."

She scanned over their character profiles, immediately finding the female of the lot and mentally making changes. There was no way she was having a blond headed bimbo in this, now a red haired...Claire cut that thought short and found the villain. No surprise it was a biochemical scientist turned terrorist, named..."Washi?"

"It means cooking lard." Darien automatically responded, then shrugged, "it was all I could think of."

"I wanted to call him Foofoo," Hobbes grippingly put in.

"We're not calling him Foofoo!" 

"Washi it is," Claire quickly stated then began typing, asking the odd question here and there as she went.

The two men crowded in behind her watching as her fingers seemed to hover above the keys, the sounds of the keys tapping below while words magically appeared on the screen. "So where is Wa- our bad guy?" She asked.

"He has an island," Bobby quickly told her and Darien eagerly added, "and a fortress."

Claire's hands stopped typing and she turned to look at them. "In the San Diego Bay?"

The men exchanged looks, then Darien made a face and suggested, "an abandoned warehouse?"

"There's plenty of abandoned warehouses," Bobby agreed and Darien turned to Claire saying definitively, "he's in a warehouse."

She shook her head but began typing once more. "And what kind of ingenious weapon does he have? A nano-like acid that rusts all metals? Or will he seed all the clouds and flood the US, destroying all the crops? A subtle plot to make adhesive stamps not stick, or a massive hack to spread the rumor that the meat in grocery stores is really rat?" She glanced at their scrunched faces and with a small sigh suggested, "a stolen nuclear missile?"

"Perfect!" They said in unison. She just shook her head but continued typing. Soon they were well on their way to writing a story.

_It begins with Guy, for lack of any agreeing on a name for the 'star', and his sidekick, Ernie, getting a lead that the missile was stolen. Guy of coarse having contacts in the 'need to know' knows exactly what warehouse to go to. Arriving they find the missile guarded by a blond in leather named, Bambi-_

"Bambi?" Bobby asked with a frown, that wasn't what they'd originally called this character, and wasn't she supposed to be one of the accountants? Who made her a bad guy?

"Never mind, Bobby. You wouldn't understand," Claire told him and continued typing staving off any other comments or protests.

_After a bit of foreplay and fancy word exchanges, Bambi begins to kick the crap out of Guy while Ernie runs and hides. _

"Hey! I think you need to give up the keyboard, Claire!" Darien protested snatching it from her hands. "Ah! Now it's my turn!" He paused, his eyes glazing slightly over once again lost in thought, but then made a sound very much like a gurgled exclamation, and began typing.

_Guy finds a fire extinguisher and using that plus his bungie belt manages to get out of reach of Bambi and propels up to the catwalk. Running along the top he reaches the top of the missile and begins to -_

Claire grabbed the keyboard back. "What?! I was just getting to the good part!" Darien complained.

"Darien, if he stops the missile now, there's no story," she critiqued. 

"Ya, partner, there's no story," Bobby added happy to play on Claire's side. Darien resoundly glared at him.

Claire ignored the oncoming fight and resumed her thread.

_It's at that moment that Washi makes his appearance, along with fifty armed men, stopping Guy. They exchange words, Bambi joining them to show she was Washi's girlfriend, and they reveal their evil plot. They have several missiles that they will launch at midnight to blow up all of the US's damns. They tie up Guy and take off with the missile, leaving him to his doom with a bomb about to go off._

In the meantime, Ernie, who ran off is now going for help.

"Wait wait wait! Ernie's going to save him? I don't think so! Guy doesn't need no saving, he can take care of himself thank you very much!" Bobby exclaimed them took the keyboard for himself rubbing his hands together. "Let's see here."

_Guy pulls out his hidden knife and cuts the ropes, then quickly disarms the bomb. He's about to leave in chase after Washi, but his keen hearing picks up the sounds of distress. Searching the place he finds a bl- er...red haired woman tied in a room and frees her. She's profusely grateful. And we mean profusely!_

Getting a call from the president about the threats from Washi, Guy leaves her with one last kiss and meeting Ernie outside, moves on to the next abandoned warehouse that Washi is at. 

"And how did he know where Wa- the bad guy was going?" Claire asked evenly, a semi bemused expression settled on her face.

Bobby shrugged, "Guy knows everything."

"Alright, my turn!" Darien cried taking the keyboard from protesting hands.

_Staking the place out, Guy sends Ernie around back with several smoke grenades and waiting for the cue of smoke to flush the bad guys out, Guy traps them in an electric shock net, courtesy of one of his many gadgets. _

He turns on his stealth shielding and sneaks inside.

"Stealth shielding? To go with the fortress, right?" Claire asked in a droll tone.

"Right- hey! It's plausible." Darien argued.

"Ya like you're plausible," Hobbes commented then took the key board back stating, "I wasn't done!"

_Inside Guy watches the science guys working on the missiles. Off in a corner is Washi and Bambi, Bambi moves off in a different direction, Guy follows her into a room, locking the door behind him. They exchange words and he puts the moves on her. She seems reluctant but is soon swayed by his charm._

"Excuse me?" Claire asked, then promptly took the keyboard away from Hobbes. "Alright, we're ending this before it gets dangerous."

"It thought you said it'd be too short?" Darien questioned sounding a bit hurt.

"I've changed my mind," Claire replied and pulled the keyboard down to her lap to keep it out of the guy's reach.

_After several more exchanges of words, Bambi pulls out a badge and tells Guy she's an undercover CIA operative._

"Ha! I knew it!" Hobbes exclaimed with a broad grin.

Quick to protest, Darien returned, "You did not! There is no way you could 'know it' cause we're making this up as we go!"

"I'm telling you I knew, Hobbes' nose knows everything!"

"Okay, now you're just not making any sense." Their argument continued while Claire finished typing the end of the story.

_Bambi tells Guy that she sabotaged the missiles so they're harmless. They team up and take out the scientists with a few smoke bombs and in a last battle with Washi, Bambi imparts the final blow. Backup arrives with Ernie before Guy can make any more moves on Bambi and she makes a mysterious exit._

"Okay, it's done," Claire announced amid their 'discussion'.

"It's like a sixth sense, the nose...it's done?" Bobby asked, making a face as he read over the last few paragraphs, but Claire refused to give up the keyboard. 

Darien just shrugged. "So now we're supposed to read it to them?"

Nodding Claire explained looking at Darien, "Eberts said you would know how to rewire the security cameras to the computer?"

Darien blinked, then thought about it and slowly nodded. "Ya okay." It didn't take them long to set it up so they could view the hallways outside the keep. Claire was actually surprised at what she saw. She's heard them just like the others had, but she hadn't actually believed what they'd told her. 

The hallway was literally covered with bunnies. They ranged in all sizes and colors, lops, straight eared, one up one down. But what really signified them from normal bunnies, aside from the fact that they could apparently stick to walls and ceilings, was the irrie shimmer they had that would flicker sometimes, like they were somehow made of an odd sort of energy. 

The sight left them all speechless, and turned the guy's face a slighter shade of pale. Darien gulped. "O-okay...w-who's going to read it?"

Claire pursed her lips tightly and with one look at her once again frightened coworkers, stated, "I better." 

Settling in, Claire picked up the phone and dialed for the PA system, after the annoying beep she began reading. It took far longer than intended for the PA apparently had a time limit of only a couple minutes and kept cutting out so Claire had to keep redialing and picking up where she left off. Every time she got cut off the bunnies would go into a frenzied uproar but after a while they, too, began to get accustomed to the pauses and settled down to listen.

Darien and Bobby also settled in to listen. Claire watched them and inwardly groaned but didn't dare stop. Darien had found her 'secret' stash of popcorn and licorice and like two eager kids were sitting crammed on the Dentist chair happily sharing in her supplies.

When she was finally done she put the phone carefully back on its cradle and gulped down a large glass of water to sooth her dry throat. The three got up and crept closer to the monitoring screen. For the most part the bunnies all seemed to have fallen asleep, sedated by the story, and to Claire's amazement several of them began to dissolve into thin air until there were just a few left. But those few didn't stay asleep long and to Claire's further amazement, in a growing frenzy they began to split into several more little bunnies, all fully functional and rising in their bunny activities. "Oh my! They're multiplying!" She exclaimed.

Darien and Bobby just groaned. "Now what do we do?"

BRING

Claire grabbed the phone, listened for a few seconds and hung it up without saying a word. The men looked at her expectantly. She had a slightly stricken look on her face as she told them, "The Official wants us to do a boring story."

"Boring story?" They repeated. She nodded and they stood looking at each other in silence for a few minutes. "Well, how about a day in the life of...?" Bobby suggested.

"Like your life?" Darien questioned.

Hobbes turned a glare on him. "Bobby Hobbes leads a interesting life, my friend! Unlike you who sits around reading all the time."

"Reading's interesting," Darien protested, but sounded more hurt than defiant. He immediately turned to Claire, "What about Claire? She lives her life in a lab!"

"Excuse me?!" Claire crossed her arms and gave him 'that look' to which Darien automatically shrunk away from, he got that look from a lot of woman but he was always too stubborn to pay any real attention to it.

"Well what did you do yesterday?" He asked defensively.

"If you must know, I was out on a date," she replied tartly.

"A date?" The words came out of Hobbes' mouth before he could stop them, a look of pain flashing across his face, but he quickly shook it off. "It's gotta be you buddy," he declared to Fawkes, then added, glancing sidewise at Claire, "I was at the club with a lady friend last night, and it was quite enjoyable." 

Darien's eyebrows scrunched together, then he sighed. Without verbally acknowledging that his day wasn't as interesting as the theirs, he didn't think he could bring himself to do that, he just sat down at the computer and began typing away.

Claire and Bobby just let him type, intermittently moving around the Keep restless. Bobby tried a couple times at conversation with Claire, always coming back to her 'date' searching for details, but she was quick to tell him it wasn't any of his business. 

When Darien finally finished, he sat back amazed at just how much he'd typed. True, the events weren't much, getting up, shower, hair, breakfast, work, paperwork, sandwich at the deli down the street, more paper work, salon, bank, picked up Chinese food, book, stayed up late reading, sleep. Ya, okay, so there wasn't much excitement to that at all, but he'd decided to write his day much like he'd be writing his journal, if he had a journal, although he was careful to leave out a certain few of his opinions, this was going to be read out of the PA after all. 

When he was ready, Claire showed him how to operate the PA and got him a glass of water that she set on the counter. He looked at them, surprised to find himself a bit nervous. 

"Well?" Bobby encouraged, and Darien dialed the number waiting for the tone to begin reading.

The bunnies outside settled to silence immediately, as did everything else, which only made Darien more nervous, but as he got into it, he actually found himself enjoying the masterpiece he'd written. He was completely enthralled by his own words.

When it ended, he looked up, amazed as silence greeted him. He spotted Claire somehow curled up on her computer chair, though Darien wasn't sure how, and Bobby spread out on the dentist chair. At first Darien thought they were both asleep, feeling bit of pain that he'd put them to sleep, but he soon realized Claire's intelligent gaze was focused completely on him. She was wide awake, although the snore from the dentist chair gave Bobby away and after an unconscious shift of positions and a snort through the now covered breathing receptacle, Bobby woke up with a start. "W-what? Oh, you're done? Good job partner!"

"Yea, right," Darien griped and looked expectantly at Claire. She didn't comment but rather unfolded and rolled over to view the monitor.

The bunnies were once again dissolving before them, but there were still those stubborn few that insisted on multiplying. Darien let out a growl of frustration. "Where do these plot bunnies come from!"

"Wait, wait, what's that?" Hobbes asked, pointing at the screen. At the end of the hall they saw something blurry approaching. Apparently the bunnies so it too, for they went into a panicked frenzy, their little bodies zipping back and forth blocking what ever it was from view.

"I hope it isn't Alex," Claire suddenly worried.

"I hope it is," Hobbes murmured, then quickly added from their looks, "so she can get us out of here!" 

What ever it was apparently had the bunnies in state of fear and panic, and to their surprise the creature they were running from suddenly came right into view as it reached out with long paws, trapped a plot bunny, and promptly ate it.

"What the bloody hell is that!" Claire exclaimed as they watched it jump playfully around eating the scattering plot bunnies. It looked for the most part like a gigantic fox like creature with gray and white fluffy fur, black wooden limbs, and a long fluffy tail. 

"Is it...is it a muse?" Darien wondered out loud.

"Who cares, it's eating the bunnies, isn't it?" Hobbes stated. None of them wanted to ask what the creature would do when it ran out of plot bunnies, but soon the bunnies were gone and the creature merrily bounded away back down the hall. 

They waited five minutes in the silence, then with the Keeper unlocking the door they cautiously stepped out into the now vacant hallway. The silence was deafening. The little troop carefully made their way upstairs and found others who were now poking their heads out of office doors. The Official and Eberts had settled back to normal in their office, and acting as if the day hadn't even happened were quick to demand the weeks reports when the trio appeared. 

"Well, it's all back to normal," Bobby grumbled. "We should get back to work, partner. I'm not doing all that paper work by myself, you know!"

"Ya, I'll meet you there later, there's something else I want to do first." Darien replied and walked away, hearing Bobby automatically turn to Claire asking her if she'd like to grab a bit to eat.

They had checked on pretty much everyone, everyone but one person. He made his way up to her office and refraining from knocking poked his head in, for all the world expecting the office to be empty. He was more than surprised to see Monroe jump startled from behind her computer and give him a glare. "What is it Fawkes?"

"Oh, um, I was just checking to see if you were okay." He lamely answered stepping in.

"Of coarse I'm okay, why wouldn't I be?" She questioned, quickly closing the file she was working on as he neared.

Darien felt confused. "Well...never mind," he sighed and headed for the door.

"Hey Fawkes?" Alex called out and said curtly when he turned around, "You know there are places where you can read stories, but I don't think you should be reading them over the PA."

Darien just stared at her. He wanted to tell her what she had apparently missed, but just sighed again and with a wave vanished back out the door.

Alex played with the inside of her mouth for a few minutes as she watched the backside of her closed door, waiting until she was sure he wasn't coming back. Allowing herself a small grin she eagerly pulled up her file and resumed typing.

Fini


End file.
